Can it get any worse for Baylor?
On the athletic front, Baylor has a tougher road to travel than most schools. It would be hard to argue that the school isn't in over it's head in the Big 12, competing against the likes of Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Throw in a murder, allegations of drug use, and the resignation of the AD and basketball coach, and, well, things are looking bleak.
[W]e ask if a basketball program that has endured the shooting death of a player, accusations of murder against another player, only two winning seasons in the last nine years, questions of drug-testing impropriety and cash payments to players, and now the resignation of both the basketball coach and the school's athletic director who hired him, has finally reached bottom? Or is there more?
You would have at least thought with all the charges of dishonesty and dishonor that Bliss would have done better than no postseason victories and an unimpressive 61-57 record, with far too many of the 61 coming against the likes of Hardin-Simmons and North Texas.
A larger, potential question entangling the Big 12's only private school could be its very future as a league member in good standing. At this point, Baylor only brings to the table athletic teams that its conference members can count on beating.
"Baylor is teetering on the edge," one school official in the league said. "But I don't think there's any way Baylor would ever get out of the Big 12."
However, unless Baylor takes decisive action and makes strong, respectable hires to replace Bliss and Stanton, the school's athletic programs will continue to go down a long, dark road that ends who knows where.
This would seem a perfect time for Baylor's administration to re-examine it's priorities. Does Baylor, which has a sterling academic reputation, NEED to compete in big-time athletics with schools whose priorities clearly do not mirror their own? There is no shame in deciding that the time has come to head in another direction. Perhaps it's time that Baylor looked at doing exactly that.
